World Leaders Are Pulling An All-Nighter To Save The Planet

World Leaders Are Pulling An All-Nighter To Save The Planet

The historic Paris climate talks have reached their eleventh hour, and world leaders are scrambling to put the finishing — but very important — touches on the accord that could save our planet from apocalyptic climate change.

A draft of the global agreement to limit humanity’s carbon emissions was released earlier today, but there are still a lot of sticking points to hash out. These include some pretty important issues, including whether the world plans to limit global warming to 1.5C — which might prevent vulnerable island nations from going underwater — or if we’re going to cut our losses and stick to the original 2C target.

Developing countries are also insisting that the agreement is crystal clear on how much money wealthy nations plan on forking over for screwing up the Earth. A lot of the onus to clean up this climate mess rests on countries that haven’t industrialized yet. There are also many unresolved disputes over losses and damages already accrued by climate change.

It would be very, very bad if an accord couldn’t be reached at Paris. To make sure this doesn’t go down like one of NASA’s failed rocket launches, diplomats are pulling an all-nighter to close the deal. And no bullshit will be tolerated: according to The Guardian, negotiators “would be given 30 to 45 minutes in a corner of the room” to settle any disputes. After time-out, disputes must be OVER. (These negotiators, by the by, also met all through the night Wednesday — so I’m really hoping the men and women deciding the fate of our world have an ample supply of Red Bull).

We’ll check back in first thing in the morning to learn what they have come up with. In the meanwhile, if you want to torture yourself with a deep dive into carbon reductions strategies and international diplomacy, you can start with a big cup of liquid Xanax, a magnifying glass, and the draft climate accord. If you prefer the lite version, check out this live analysis of the draft, or maniacally refresh the UN Climate Talks Live Stories page, or just head on over to #COP21 on Twitter.

[The Guardian]

Top image: AP


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